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Credit & Copyright: Damian Peach/SEN
Explanation:
Astronomers turn detectives when trying to
figure out the cause of startling sights like
NGC 1316.
Their investigation indicates that
NGC 1316
is an enormous elliptical galaxy
that started, about 100 million years ago, to devour a smaller
spiral
galaxy neighbor,
NGC 1317, just above it.
Supporting evidence includes the dark
dust lanes
characteristic of a
spiral galaxy,
and faint swirls and shells of stars and gas visible in this
wide and deep image.
One thing that
remains unexplained is the unusually small
globular star clusters,
seen as faint dots on the image.
Most elliptical galaxies
have
more and brighter globular clusters than
NGC 1316.
Yet the observed
globulars are too old to have been
created by the recent
spiral collision.
One hypothesis is that these
globulars
survive from an even earlier galaxy that was subsumed into
NGC 1316.
Another surprising attribute of
NGC 1316,
also known as Fornax A, is its
giant lobes of gas that glow brightly in
radio waves.
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NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: NGC 1316
Publications with words: NGC 1316
See also: